TOKYO: Tokyo stocks ended marginally lower on Monday, following a tumble on Wall Street that was fuelled by worries about Greece’s future in the eurozone.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 at the Tokyo Stock Exchange slipped 18.39 points to 19,634.49, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares fell 0.38 percent, or 6.01 points, to 1,582.68.
“We’re likely to keep heading lower, with the fear of rising interest rates in the US and uncertainty surrounding the Chinese stock market weighing on Japanese shares,” Shoji Hirakawa, chief equity strategist at Okasan Securities, told Bloomberg News.
“With the cut to its deposit reserve ratio, you can sense that Chinese authorities do not want its stock market to collapse amid slowing economic growth.”
China’s central bank announced Sunday it would cut the level of funds that commercial banks must hold in reserve by one percentage point, the second such move this year to boost lending.
The move, effective Monday, comes days after the world’s second largest economy reported its worst quarterly growth figure for six years.
